Comilla city polls on Jan 5

Election in the newly announced Comilla City Corporation will be held on January 5 next year, said the Election Commission (EC). Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Dr ATM Shamsul Huda announced the polls schedule at a press briefing at the EC Secretariat in the city Tuesday, reports UNB. Election Commissioners M Sohul Hussain and Brig Gen (Retd) M Sakhawat Hossain, EC Secretary Dr M Sadik and senior EC officials were also present. According to the election schedule, December 2 has been fixed as the last date for submission of nomination papers while scrutiny of nomination papers will be made between December 4 and 5. Nomination papers could be withdrawn by December 14, the CEC told the briefing. Comilla was declared a city corporation on July 10 through a gazette notification. The polls schedule has been announced as the EC is supposed to do within 180 days of the formation of the city corporation. Briefing the journalists, CEC Dr Huda said the commission has decided to introduce the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) at all the 27 wards of the city corporation. About deployment of army, the CEC said army will not be deployed in the polls. Additional forces including RAB will be deployed in the election areas. Regional Election Officer (Comilla) M Abdul Baten has been made the returning officer for the Comilla City Corporation polls. There will be nine assistant returning officers who will help the returning officer. There are 169,173 eligible voters in the Comilla city areas where there will be a total of 65 polling centres and some 421 polling booths, the CEC said. He said use of live animals as election symbol will not be allowed during election campaign and candidates must not use bill boards in their campaign. Dr Huda also said all candidates would have to open bank account to show the election expenditures. Bank account numbers must be submitted while submitting nomination papers by the candidates. He cautioned that no showdown would be allowed and the candidates must refrain from holding public rallies as part of election campaign. Only door to door campaigns can be done by the candidates. Web camera and CCTV would installed to monitor the polls and all polling booths would be brought under the system to record the polling activities, the CEC added. Meanwhile, the main opposition BNP has urged the EC to deploy army in the upcoming Comilla city polls and not to introduce EVMs. The BNP said this in a letter to the EC Tuesday. A two-member delegation comprising BNP leaders Abdul Latif Johnny and Asadul Karim Shahin submitted the party's letter, signed by its Acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, to the EC Secretariat around 12:15pm the same day. "We request you (EC) to deploy army to ensure a free, fair, meaningful and competitive election to be participated by all. We also seek your clear announcement not to use controversial and rejected EVM in the upcoming Comilla city polls," the BNP said.